Category: Repair
Published 05/22/2020 · Comments: · Reading time: 5 min · Views: Post Views: 11,667
For installation, it is important to know in which direction the leaf will open. This is necessary for the correct acquisition of hinges and mortise lock structures. In this article we will tell you how to determine whether the door is left or right in front of you.
The first way to determine
Doors are known to open inward and outward. Let's assume that the canvas opens outward, that is, it goes from you to another room or to the street. Let's say that the handle for this opening is located on the left, and if you are not left-handed, you will push the ceiling with your right hand - that means it is a left-handed door. If, when pushing the door outward, the left hand is used, and the handle is located on the right, congratulations, the door leaf is right-handed.
If you still don’t understand which door is left and right, how to identify it, and at the same time you doubt the need for such knowledge, do not give up trying - there is a simpler option for recognizing left and right non-political movements.
Choosing a lock for different door locations
- If the door handle is located on the right and the door opens towards itself, then the design is right-handed.
- Accordingly, if the handle is mounted on the left and the structure opens away from you, you should purchase fittings and the door itself in the left direction.
Universal hinges that are suitable for any side of the door opening are quite difficult to find. Unlike choosing a locking mechanism, where there are alternative options, when purchasing elements for fastening, you need to be extremely careful. This is due to the fact that even the hinges, called universal store sellers, cannot always be positioned correctly for comfortable opening of structures with different directions of the doors.
Even an incorrectly installed lock may take some time to open. However, due to incorrectly rotating blades, over time the springs can weaken and fail. After such a situation, it will be impossible to open the lock.
Scheme for opening the door from yourself
When installing interior doors, the opening side plays an important role, since the design option for the doorway depends on it. Before installation work, it is worth finally deciding on the opening side of the interior structure. The door frame must be installed in such a way that the leaf is firmly pressed against the ledge, and the type of hinges allows the door to swing open in the desired direction.
Note:
In developed countries, they care about safety during possible emergency situations, so a lot of time and attention is paid to compliance with the rules. To determine the type of door, stand in the doorway facing the widest part of the frame. The door should open in the direction opposite to your position, that is, away from you. When opening a door, remember the hand you use to push the door. The left hand opens the left-hand door counterclockwise, and the right hand does the opposite.
Second way to determine
Let's try one more way. Now let’s agree that the canvas opens inward, that is, towards you. If the right hand is used when opening, and the handle is located on the left, then the door is right-handed. In the case when it is convenient to pull the structure towards you with your left hand, but the handle is located on the right side, the door is left-handed.
If you are completely confused about what is happening and why the left and right doors should differ (we have already tried to explain to you how to determine their direction), read the following method, and everything will become clear as day.
Professional tips for choosing hinges
In most countries, universal hinges are used for doors, but in Russia and Switzerland, left and right are used.
They are convenient to use, as they allow you to remove and rearrange the door if necessary. In order to determine which loops you need, just stand in front of the canvas. If it should open towards you, with your right hand, then right hinges are needed, if with your left hand, then left hinges. Close attention should be paid to the manufacturer of the product. If Italy or Spain or Israel are indicated there, then they have the opposite system : the left hand opens the right door and right-hand hinges will be needed, and the right hand will open the left door and left-hand hinges will be needed.
Third way to determine
Stand in front of the door and pull it towards you. If at this moment the slings on which the door leaf hangs are located to your right, this is the right door. They can safely be attributed to the design with the right opening of the door leaf. But if the hinges were to your left (provided that they pulled the door leaf towards you), then, obviously, the door is left.
There is nothing complicated in answering the question: which door is left and right, how to determine? The photos posted in the article will help you understand this better.
How to choose the right loops
If most locks are universal, then universal hinges, although they exist, are not always suitable. Non-separable universal hinges make the process of removing doors from hinges very problematic, so they are used infrequently. When purchasing right and left hinge options, it is better to contact a good seller who will help you determine them correctly.
Thus, when choosing the right and left sides for opening a door, you need to remember that it must not only comply with safety rules and be comfortable, but also have a special set of fittings corresponding to its side.
Fourth method
There is another rather intricate option for how to find out the direction of the doors. The good news is that you don't have to stand anywhere, and you don't have to push or pull anything either. The bad thing is that you will need to disassemble the hinges (if the hinges are collapsible). If, having decomposed the hinges into two components, you find that the pin (by the way, it should “look” up) is attached to the sash element on the right - then this is the right hinge and the door, respectively. In the case when everything is the other way around, then both the hinge and the door leaf are left-handed.
Why is it important to correctly determine the opening side of the front door?
The entrance structure is an important component of the security of the premises, which should not only protect against the entry of strangers, but also, if necessary, allow residents to quickly evacuate. When choosing the left or right side for the front door, it is necessary to observe whether the adjacent leaves are blocked, as this is a violation of fire safety rules. Any complaint from neighbors to the housing office will allow an order to be given to change the side to the opposite one. Therefore, when installing an input product, you need to foresee all possible options in advance and choose the optimal solution.
Ease of use is also an important point. The curtains must open completely to one side to allow large items to be brought in or taken out. If metal products are selected, then they must be installed so that the approach from the stairs is from right to left. If the landing does not allow you to install an entrance structure that opens outward, then it is better to open it onto one of the blank walls of the room.
The door is left and right: how to determine this by the door leaf
The simplest and most understandable way to solve the problem is to open the door towards yourself and see which side the door leaf is on. And if the door is to your left, it is left and the whole story is called “left opening of the door.” If it happens that the open leaf is located on the right, then this is a right opening and, accordingly, the door itself and the hinges are right (if the hinges are not made in Europe, everything is exactly the opposite).
How to find out the direction of the door during installation
Thus, all doors are divided into left and right and equipped with hinges and locks in accordance with this. To find out exactly which side the door will open on, you need to:
- Stand facing the door on the side where it will open towards you;
- If the hinges are on the right and the door is opened with the left hand, it is a right-handed model.
- If the hinges are on the left, and the door is swung open with the right hand, it is a left-handed door.
If the doors open away from you, then the handle on the right means that the door is right-handed, and if the handle is on the left, it means the door is left-handed.
It is important that different doors are not interchangeable!
Fire safety standards
The current fire safety regulations clearly define which door is left and which is right. How to determine, SNIP (Sanitary Norms and Rules) give another option, which sounds quite simple: a door structure that can be opened with the right hand is called right-handed. Accordingly, a door leaf that opens with the left hand will be called left-handed. However, this is provided that the door opens towards you.
When designing doorways, it is necessary to ensure that they open freely. An open door should not block the entrance to an adjacent room or impede free passage to stairs and elevators.
The relocation of a doorway, according to legal provisions, is considered a redevelopment and requires approval from the relevant departments.
Entrance doors in regulatory documents are defined as evacuation doors and, in case of emergency, should not interfere with the free movement of people outside.
Standard door settings
When choosing a door, special attention should be paid to the manufacturer.
For example, Russia indicates a left-handed door when it opens towards itself with the left hand, and the handle is attached to the right. If the product is opened with the right hand towards you, and the handle is installed on the left, such a blade will be right-handed. In European countries, the left and right doors are determined by the hand that opens it. If the product is opened with the right hand to the right of the passage, then it will be right-handed.
The GOST and SNiP documents specify fire safety standards, which determine which structure should be in the room, right or left. According to these requirements, all products in the room must be installed in such a way that simultaneous opening does not cause blocking of any of them. Entrance doors should only open outward so that in case of an emergency, all residents or visitors to the apartment can be easily evacuated.
When drawing up the project, the dimensions of entrance doors of at least 800 mm are taken into account. Therefore, when opening the canvas, there should be no obstacles. If this option is not possible, then consider installing an entrance door that opens inward. Firefighters say they find it easier to open structures that open inward. These indicators will be decisive when choosing a left or right canvas. As for indoor doors, they can open in any direction, the main thing is that there is no interference or blocking with other doors.
Some practical tips to help you identify the door directly in the store:
- If you need to select products in accordance with fire safety requirements, then it is enough to know the rule : the left one opens counterclockwise, the right one opens clockwise.
- If this option does not help, then you need to pay attention to the direction of pushing the wooden products, the side of the handle and the type of hinges.
- If you need to install new blades in place of the old ones and preserve the opening side, then it is enough to observe which hand you open the product with and where the handle is located, provided that the product opens towards itself. It is the right or left hand that will indicate the right or left design.
- The situation is a little more complicated with a product that opens from itself. If the handle is on the right and you use your left hand to open, such a door will be right-handed , if the handle is on the left and you use your right hand, such a door will be left-handed.
Rules as defined in European countries
The European definition of door opening (right or left) differs radically from the Russian one. If the manufacturer of doors, fittings, door frames is Israel, Italy, Germany or Spain (the construction components of which have long proven themselves on the Russian market), it is worth choosing door accessories more carefully. Abroad, the type of door opening is determined by the movement of the door leaf. If the door open from itself remains to the right of the opening, the door is right. In the case when the canvas goes to your left and the open door is located to the left of the threshold, the door is left.
That is, what is right for a Russian is left for a German, something like that.
It is important to know!
As statistics from fire departments show, most fatalities occur due to the inability to escape from the premises during a fire.
Experts emphasize that by analyzing each of these cases, we can draw a conclusion: violation of the rules for installing a door, incorrect choice of the right or left side lead to blocking of the door leaves and the death of people. This issue is especially acute in relation to children. In emergency situations, they act intuitively, so when choosing which side to open the door, you need to weigh everything and make a decision that will, first of all, protect the lives of all residents of the house or apartment. Left and right door. At first glance, this is a specialist question. But only a competent decision by the apartment owner will allow us to say with confidence that the chosen option is correct, reliable and safe.
Installing new doors in place of old ones
If renovations are underway and the task is to replace the entrance group, then you need to figure out which doors are being replaced - left or right. How to determine what kind of door you have?
So that the fire department and organizations responsible for sanitary standards do not have any complaints against you, you must preserve the design of the doorway planned by the design bureau. To do this, just remember which hand opened the door when you pulled it towards you. If you held the handle with your right hand, the door is right, if your left hand was used, the door leaf is left.
The direction of movement of interior doors is selected based on personal preferences and design requirements. It is more difficult with entrance doors, for which special requirements are imposed by the departments responsible for the safety of residents.
European approach
In Europe, fire safety requirements are also given a lot of attention, if not more. And if you need to deal with this issue in accordance with European standards, keep in mind that the methods for determining whether a door is opened: left or right are radically different from the usual approach.
Option to open the interior door “from yourself”
In European countries they do not look at the criteria that are taken into account in our usual method. In order to determine where the entrance and interior doors open, a completely different approach is used. To do this, you need to stand in relation to the opening in such a way that the wide part of the box looks at you. In other words, the door should open in the direction opposite to you, that is, “away from you.”
Next, we pay attention to the hand with which you push, for example, interior doors and the direction in which the opening occurs. The left one should swing counterclockwise using the left hand. And accordingly, vice versa - the right one should open clockwise with the right hand.
Door hinges and locks
It is important to know exactly which hinges will fit a particular door. According to GOST 5088-2005, there are left and right hinges that fit the corresponding door leaves. Right-hand hinges are applicable to doors that, when closed, move counterclockwise and, if you apply one of the determination methods listed in the article, you can guess that the door is also right-handed. Accordingly, left hinges are called hinges that are suitable for doors with a left direction, which moves the door in a clockwise direction.
All fittings will depend on which direction the doors open. To purchase hinges and locks that fit the door, you need to figure out whether the door is left-handed or right-handed. The entire previous text tells you how to determine it correctly, but if you still don’t understand, it doesn’t matter. There are universal door fittings on sale that will fit any door, be it left or right.
Often, when purchasing and installing door locks or handles, it is important to know which opening door you have installed, right or left. You need to know this in order to choose the right lock. There are: universal locks (where the latch-tab is reversed for both the left and right doors), and locks that are exclusively right-handed or left-handed are also often found.
Let's consider options for doors, external and internal opening.
- Left external opening door:
Approach the door from the landing (street). If the door handle is located on the right edge of the door leaf, and the door hinges are on the left side of the door, and you open the door with your left hand, moving it towards you, then such a door is considered left-handed. - Left internal opening door:
Approach the door from the apartment side. If the door handle is located on the right edge of the door leaf, and the door hinges are on the left side of the door, and you open the door with your left hand, moving it towards you, then such a door is considered left-handed. - Right external opening door:
Approach the door from the landing (street). If the door handle is located on the left edge of the door leaf, and the door hinges are on the right side of the door, and you open the door with your right hand, moving it towards you, then such a door is considered right-handed. - Right internal opening door:
Approach the door from the apartment side. If the door handle is located on the left edge of the door leaf, and the door hinges are on the right side of the door, and you open the door with your right hand, moving it towards you, then such a door is considered right-handed.
Features of different types of handles
On the bar
Handles usually have a type of design, the name indicates the letter (L - left or R - right).
There are also handles that have a universal design; the name of such handles always contains the letter “U”. This option is suitable for any door leaf. Such a handle can be easily reconfigured, for example the P85-9090-U handle.
On a flange (socket, separate)
The handle on the flange (rosette) is used for installation on doors made of metal or wood. They have a spring that is needed to return the handle to its original position when lifted up or pressed. It is securely fastened with screws, there is a hook on the spring, a reinforced system for limiting the rotation of the handle, and different configurations. Handles on a flange can have a single-row ball bearing in a flange housing, which makes it possible to use it in rooms where a lot of people walk.
Anti-panic
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Right or left: door handle diagnostic methods
When buying a handle for a door lock, find out in advance what type of opening your door has: left or right. The lock can be universal (suitable for any door), right or left. For entrance doors there is an internal and external opening type.
To determine which door is left or right, you need to look at the door from above (the right one closes clockwise). You should also look at which side the handle is located when you open the door towards you.
In other countries, the design of the door is determined in a different way. As a result, misunderstanding arises (imported components spoil the situation and bring chaos). To avoid misunderstandings, it is important to clarify the correct location of locks and hinges before purchasing. The ideal option is a universal handle, but you can also use a right or left one.
Left outer
If from the street the handle is located to the right of the door, then the door hinges are located on the left. Then the door can be opened with your left hand.
How to choose the right locks
Many people face this problem: they needed mortise locks for their doors, but after purchasing them it turns out that opening and closing the lock is impossible, since the bevels on the tongues point in the other direction.
In order to avoid such troubles, you need to establish in advance, using the method described above, which doors the locks are intended for.
- If it is not possible to do this for some reason, you can simply ask the store for a universal lock. In such models, the lock tongue turns over: by pressing the pawl and pushing it deep, you can turn it 180 degrees through the side holes, after which the latch takes the desired position. The problem with right/left doors thus disappears.
- Cylinder locks are not divided into opening sides, but, unfortunately, not all locks can be adjusted to the type of door; many of them are also divided depending on the mounting side.
- Level lock: due to its special design features, it is recommended to refrain from turning it over. To find out whether your lever lock is left or right, you need to turn the key towards the nearest jamb; if the lock closes, it is installed correctly. If the lock closes by rotating away from the jamb, it is installed incorrectly. An incorrectly installed lock cannot be opened (closed) with your own key if at least one spring that returns the levers fails.
The problem of installing locks does not apply to standard, mass-produced entrance doors, because they are always sold with locks installed in accordance with regulations.
